When Josephine Foster sings, the world turns black and white, except for the little bluebirds that dart around her shoulders and whistle along to her wistful tunes. When Josephine Foster sings, carnivals appear along dusty roads, with friendly non-meth-addicted carnies and naughty (but basically PG-rated) dancing girls with pretty feathers and tinny records. When Josephine Foster sings, it’s like the Great Depression never ended, except this time around it’s a FUN Great Depression with nothing sadder than a lonely song and the fact that ya gotta go home when the crumpets are gone and the Tea Bazaar closes (this is a place Ms. Foster is playing in Charlottesville, not something I made up.) No dust storms! No casual bigotry! No people jumping out of skyscrapers because all their money is gone! None of that Grapes of Wrath shit.

So it’s a lucky thing for America that Josephine Foster is striking up a spring East Coast tour. And golly gee, if she isn’t reissuing the Record Store Day “exclusive” 10-inch vinyl re-release of her lovely 2001 EP Little Life on June 11 via Fire Records! Bees’ knees! Cat’s pajamas! 1920s slang! Little Life, released initially as a CD-R, was recorded by Foster when she was home alone with her ukelele. Josephine Foster, who is also one of those opera-trained fancy women, had worked as a children’s music teacher, and she wrote the album specifically to get the creative juices churning in the kiddies she devised it for. It works for adults, too, as well as tiny bluebirds and little people.

Guys! Oh my god! Do you know about these things called “quotation marks”? This is a little embarrassing I guess, but I am JUST NOW getting into them! They totally rule. I had no idea! Dude, it’s like, just so fun to use them to stress things or imply sarcasm or attribute some words to another person other than myself or whatever. It’s like:

Toro Y Moi is a “thing.” A “musical” thing that some people are “into.” “Legend” has it that if enough people are “into something,” it tends to sooner-or-later get labeled “pop.” And once something gets to be “pop,” the idea of its own popularity kinda tends to becomes “popular,” and it just becomes easier to keep it “going,” even if certain “web zines” claim that the thing’s most recent thing shouldn’t be as popular as its last thing. It’s sorta like what Shakespeare said, though: “If music be the food of love, play on.” Or how about Plato, who said “music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything”? That totally “backs-up” my argument about Toro Y Moi! When you make “popular music,” you just keep touring on it. Don’t believe me? Ask Billy Joel (this one’s a nice, pullquote-y long one, too!):

I think music in itself is healing. It’s an explosive expression of humanity. It’s something we are all touched by. No matter what culture we’re from, everyone loves music.

See? “Everyone loves music.” Iron clad! And even moreso when I put it in quotes, right? Oh, and speaking of everyone loving music; as far as I can tell, that’s the reason why all this shit is happening:

As seen previously, I can wax pseudo-intellectual on µ-Ziq (Mike Paradinas) all day. There’s a strange attraction in his music that makes me susceptible to extended bouts of wanking off at the mouth. Don’t worry though, on this occasion I’ll spare us both the embarrassment and just get straight to the point: a new µ-Ziq record is being released by Planet Mu on June 25.

Chewed Corners will be Paradinas’ first proper album since 2007, and will be preceded by an EP, XTEP, on May 21. Both sets introduce an approach that is radically more accessible and melodious than the shadow-tinged probings of µ-Ziq’s back catalogue. Angular rigidity has taken backseat to lush structures, and the resulting songs are less cerebral, more corporeal, retro-futuristic, and acutely cinematic (seriously, how much Vangelis did this guy listen to?). But “how did it all turn out?” you ask; I’ll leave it to our reviewers to answer that one, so tune back in soon.

Some say there is a terrible secret hiding within Mount Moriah. While the mountain stands sullen and stoic, there are many who believe that the mountain is no mountain at all. Though the naked eye sees only stone, many of the area mystics believe that the stone is but a thin barrier protecting the world from the great bird that lay within the mountain. The bird was, in ancient times, petrified by a wizard, so that it could not bring upon the end days with its mighty screech. If the bird was to awaken, all would be lost.

Well, maybe that’s true and maybe it’s not. Who can really be sure? In the absence of any terrible apocalypse birds, there exists Merge-signed folk trio Mount Moriah, who are on a tour of the United States at this very moment. Will they set the land ablaze and squelch out any life that dare cross their path? Eh, no. They’ll just play some music, much of which will likely derive from their recently-released sophomore record, Miracle Temple.

Hey kids! Have you ever wanted to look like sunn 0))) dreamboat Steven O’Malley? Well, now you can! O’Malley is releasing his own line of custom robes, under his new “Pitch Black Darkness” line. These robes are guaranteed by O’Malley himself to “absorb the entirety of light and return with only the lonely darkness of space,” along with not shrinking in the wash. Get yours now at Stephen O’Malley’s Pitch Black Darkness Robe Dot Com!

That’s not happening. What is happening, though, is O’Malley curating an experimental stage at Katowice, Poland’s OFF Festival. O’Malley himself will be playing the stage as his KTL project with Editions Mego head Peter Rehberg. Others on the stage include Chelsea Wolfe, Bohren and der Club of Gore, Zeni Geva, Circle, Furia, and Piotr Kurek. If you’re some sort of jerk and aren’t interested in any of this O’Malley-approved experimental stuff, there are plenty of other notable artists playing OFF: Deerhunter, Godspeed! You Black Emperor, Jens Lekman, Laurel Halo, Fatima Al Qadiri, My Bloody Valentine, Mykki Blanco, The Smashing Pumpkins, The Pop Group, Peanut Butter Wolf, Thee Oh Sees, Girls Against Boys, and more and more. If you can’t find anything you like there, well, don’t go. A simple solution.

If you do, however, want to go, tickets are still on sale here. Four-day passes are sold out, though, so you’ll have to settle with three days. However, from what I understand, the festival only runs three days. I am unsure what they mean by four-day passes, but they’re sold out, so don’t worry about it.